Ok, I need to say it. This article just has iPhone in the title to get more views. This is a problem with not just all smartphones but all rapidly evolving technology products. Do you think you could hand an android phone to one of those example cases and have them do any better with it?
Also half of the time I am in an apple store I am helped by someone who needs to use the accessibility features to check me out/in. I think it is awesome that Apple dog foods their products that way.
Almost all of it can be applied to not only Android phones but also Mac, and Windows. The problem is that everyone needs a slightly different set of features to be at the front. There is no way any software maker can surface the features a user needs for everyone. At some point the user has to take responsibility and learn the tool they bought. If it was anything from a coffee machine, to a tractor, the user has to learn how to use it, and also use it all to it’s full capacity. With accessibility issues this is harder I know, and yes Apple should put text size settings in the set up process.
Also maybe phones could be more proactive in pushing the user to do stuff differently. Eg if the user keeps googling Facebook to get there it could suggest typing directly or showing a message about what bookmarks are.
But the title of this article is definitely click bait. I know I clicked on it indignantly thinking “maybe but no more than other phones”. Whereas if it had been “phones are hard to use”, then “lets look at the iPhone”, the chances I clicked on it would’ve been lower as I would’ve though “yeah you’re probably right”
It’s actually a pretty good article, that made me think about my job, just would’ve been nice to see examples from other platforms for comparison.
I disagree unless you are saying:
1. Only iPhones can adjust text size.
2. Only iPhones have mapping functionality
3. Only iPhones have a voice activated digital assistant.
4. Only iPhone have a health app.
These are all common smart phone features. They only pertain to iphones because of the title and the author uses specific examples of otherwise generic problems in the context of iphone use.
I would say only iPhones have apple stores with classes specifically geared towards teaching the novice user how to use their phones.
If I were the author and I was only familiar with iPhones then I would be extremely wary of making claims about other phone OSes that I didn't have as much experience with. Nothing in his article says that other phones don't have these problems—he's merely asserting that iPhones do.
Exactly. I mean, Android has most of these issues, but I believe that Google's latest initial setup strongly encourages the configuration of emergency contact information just as one example.
If he had tried to imply that it covered Android as well it would have focused on some problems that Android might not have and probably overlooked a dozen more that it does have.
I don't think the author thinks that either platform is perfect.
It's still justified because Apple prides itself as the pinnacle of usability. It's one thing if $RANDOM_ANDROID_OEM builds a bad UI. It's a whole different thing if Apple builds a bad UI.
This article just has iPhone in the title to get more views
Don't you think it has iPhone in the title since the author is an iPhone user so the article is about iPhones? Every example he gives in the article is specific to an iPhone.
Maybe the article could be generalized to other smartphones, but the author's experience is with iPhones, that's what he wrote about in the article, so it seems appropriate for the title.
I disagree unless you are saying:
1. Only iPhones can adjust text size.
2. Only iPhones have mapping functionality
3. Only iPhones have a voice activated digital assistant.
4. Only iPhone have a health app.
These are all common smart phone features. They only pertain to iphones because of the title and the author uses specific examples of otherwise generic problems in the context of iphone use.
I would say only iPhones have apple stores with classes specifically geared towards teaching the novice user how to use their phones.
Just because all companies handle the problem space really badly, doesn't mean we should excuse it.
Apple products, as far as I can remember, do not come with any sort of manual describing the nifty little shortcuts that they have. Even as someone who did IT support and handled a lot of iPhone troubleshooting constantly, I got blindsided by lots of small things, like when they switched the force reboot from power+home to power+volume down, or whatever it is now.
If you have a feature but nobody knows how to use it, is it really helpful?
The “Tips” feature (Swipe left from home) points you right to the User Guide downloadable from the Books app for the device. It also prompts you with this info shortly after you finish setting up the device. It’s a 600+ page manual that describes every single button, gesture, function, menu, for every preinstalled app on the phone.
There’s a section that describes most everything that has changed in the newest iOS release.
Well there are many ways to get there, tap the Tips app that is preinstalled on the home screen on a newly setup iOS device. As I said, it also sends a notification shortly after device setup directing you there.
I've literally never seen the Tips app. Granted, I haven't had a new device in a while; but I don't recall this being present when I bought my iPhone 7, and it certainly didn't show up when I upgraded to iOS 12 over the weekend. And as someone who has had iOS devices for a while, I'm not sure that I would ever get it, since my first thing is usually to just transfer a backup to my new phone.
The point is, devices used to come with a manual that had at least some guidance on how to use a device. It may not have exposed everything, but it told you the basics. Apple, anecdotally, has outsourced this to Google and the kindness of strangers like yourself, to tell me how my device works. And that's the biggest CX failure for me.
I've honestly considered switching to Android many times because the iOS premium no longer seems justified in terms of hardware or UX, and at this point the only thing stopping me is my suspicion of Google.
It showed up in iOS 9 and gave you both a push notification and a message during the initial update to iOS 9 (whether that was an upgrade on-boarding or a setup as a new device).
Yeah, the Tips app is new in iOS 11. It might have been relegated to some "Preinstalled" app group somewhere or pushed to one of the last pages. It's definitely front and center on new phones now.
I also just checked the paper insert that comes with the new iPhone and the first thing at the top of the page is the following:
iPhone User Guide
Before using iPhone, review the user guide at help.apple.com/iphone. You can also use Apple Books to download the guide (where available) or, to view the user guide on iPhone, use the Safari bookmark. Retain documentation for future reference.
> Apple products, as far as I can remember, do not come with any sort of manual describing the nifty little shortcuts that they have
You would not have needed a manual in the past. Discoverability used to be a core tenet of the Apple HIG. Now that's apparently gone, and we're reduced to hunting through a "Tips" app or trying gestures until something happens.
Don Norman and Bruce Tognazzini (an original Apple HIG author) wrote a great article about this a few years ago. Here's the excerpt describing discoverability:
"Today’s devices lack discoverability: There is no way to discover what operations are possible just by looking at the screen. Do you swipe left or right, up or down, with one finger, two, or even as many as five? Do you swipe or tap, and if you tap is it a single tap or double? Is that text on the screen really text or is it a critically important button disguised as text? So often, the user has to try touching everything on the screen just to find out what are actually touchable objects"
I’m a big fan of Don Norman - I read his book when it was called “The Psychology of Everyday Things” while I was studying industrial design in the lat 80’s. I disagree with him on this. Discoverability varies between products depending on the complexity of the interaction model.
I wholeheartedly agree that more accessibility focus and ease of adoption for novices is something the industry as a whole should focus on.
Historically large manuals do not help users use the device better. Ex. How well do you know how to use the advanced features of your microwave?
I would say apple is the least bad at this. They offer classes, every release has “What is new” progressions when you launch. Over time this is going to be an increasingly difficult challenge, as tech develops on a platform it builds on its previous patterns. You get to the point where some competence is assumed (correctly or wrongly). When I get into a car there is no display that tells me “this is a steering wheel, it turns the wheels in proportion to how much you twist it”.
They could easily include one but instead they encourage people to come to the Apple Stores and discuss the problem with a Genius. This in turn encourages people to look at at new products and get premium 1-1 support that you don't get from other vendors.
This article just has iPhone in the title to get more views
While I don't disagree with you, in the United States it feels like more and more the term "iPhone" is used to mean "smart phone." Like how people use the brands TelePrompTer and Dumpster as generic terms.
I don't know if this is good or bad, but I've heard the phrase "Android iPhone" twice in public.
Microsoft have done a pretty good job with Windows 10 when you first set it up.
By default it reads out all the prompts for setting up your PC with Cortana, so if you wish you can setup everything via voice. I haven't ever tried it, so can't comment on how well it works, but it seems like a good start...
Also half of the time I am in an apple store I am helped by someone who needs to use the accessibility features to check me out/in. I think it is awesome that Apple dog foods their products that way.